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TheFirst Corps Area was aCorps area (effectively a military district) of theUnited States Army. It replaced the Northeastern Department, and was headquartered atSouth Boston Army Base, Massachusetts. The organization included Army units and facilities in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Connecticut. It was responsible for the mobilization, and administration of theFirst United States Army (1936–38); theFourth Army,I Army Corps with9th,26th, and 43d Divisions;XI Corps, constituted 29 July 1921, with the76th, 94th, and 97th Division; coast defense units of the First Coast Artillery District, some units of the GHQ Reserve, and theZone of the Interior support units of the First Corps Area Service Command. First Corps Area was redesignated First CASC in May 1941.[1]
The First Corps Area Training Center was established in the Regular Army on 7 July 1921, and was organized on 9 November 1921 with headquarters atFort Andrews,Massachusetts. The headquarters was moved toFort Warren, Massachusetts, on 19 December 1921. The training center's training group, atCamp Devens, Massachusetts, conducted training and demonstration functions for Regular Army, National Guard, andOrganized Reserve units, ROTC cadets, and CMTC candidates. The depot group consisted of an illiterate and development section, and a conventional recruit training section for new Regular Army recruits for units stationed in the First Corps Area. Originally, training for all arms and services except cavalry and field artillery was to be accomplished at Camp Devens, while cavalry and field artillery were to train atFort Ethan Allen,Vermont. The First Corps Area Training Center was discontinued on 8 July 1922. Camp Devens then became the primary training center for corps area infantry units only. Air corps units were sent toMitchel Field, New York, engineer units toFort Du Pont,Delaware; and signal corps units were sent to Camp Alfred Vail (later renamedFort Monmouth),New Jersey. Corps area maneuvers of Regular Army mobile units were held, those years when funds were available, near Fort Ethan Allen.[2]
With the adoption of the four field army plan on 1 October 1933, the mobile units of the First Corps Area were reassigned to the First Army or GHQ Reserve, or were demobilized.[1] For the administration ofOrganized Reserve units, all organizations initially came under the control of the I Corps, or the 76th, 94th, and 97th Divisions. When the XI Corps was inactivated in 1925, the HQ, Non-Divisional Group was established to direct the organization, training, and administration of all nondivisional units. This arrangement was short-lived. On 8 September 1925, the Non-Divisional Group was discontinued and the HQ, Artillery Group was established. This new group managed only the corps area nondivisional field artillery units, the 158th Cavalry Brigade (part of the64th Cavalry Division, Organized Reserves), and personnel assigned to the I and XI Corps. The rest of the nondivisional units were turned over to the three Organized Reserve divisions for administrative control.
AtBrainard Field, a civilian airfield located at Hartford, Connecticut, the 43d Division Aviation (1923–29) and the118th Observation Squadron (1923–41) trained.[3]
In May 1941, the Corps Area became the First Corps Area Service Command (CASC). Major GeneralFrancis B. Wilby was the commanding general from 15 July 1941–11 January 1942. Soon afterwards, the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, Brigadier GeneralSherman Miles, marked for his directorate's intelligence failure before theAttack on Pearl Harbor, was promoted to major general but then given the relatively unimportant command of First CASC. First CASC was again redesignated First Service Command, part of theSecond World WarArmy Service Forces, on 22 July 1942.[1] By 1943, it had a strength of 31,246.[4] Miles retained command throughout the war.
First Service Command became an area command under the newFirst Army (United States) in mid 1946. GeneralIra T. Wyche commanded First Service Command until January 1947.